ti ..,.....,..;. W j 4.:>' ; . tj :. ':::':':': . t ., :-' .." .... .' .: . . .' .' :::JJm lj ':.:: ;l'::,;i -l. ! :.t ::.,,:i:i. ,. \.,.. . .'. .U..$<1.... .., ..' '. .' ,.,.. v., . .... e: ' ! :;= ,::i ;;;:::;, !:::::;; ; .; :i :': .:;,:; :"j::j; ': .. " .X " :';'0 . ' . : . : . t : ::iÜ it '. .' ":; . %þ' t":: .'. :,,' >. J-".":- .. .('::.\ Æ æIi" " j7/ . 37 ' ':::"':' ì.::. ,,4# p:" ::: ::-: .' ;': , '-:' , ::r , A · tint ' , . .. ((I'll be so g-la{i when I can talk up to Mr. Carn ody ag-ain." brain; another ripped an eight-inch gash in his neck and right shoulder, severing an artery. He remained conscious and walked calmly to a jeep, in which he rode three miles to a field hospital, where he was operated on twice. Three days later, he hopped out of bed, a Purple Heart pinned to his chest, and flew back to this country. The press of the United States, which had almost completely ignored him in health, congratulated him profusely on his escape. Winston Churchill dispatched a solicitous cable to General Marshall, and Harry, of Harry's Liquor Store, a Washington retailer patronized by many Ground Forces officers, sent the Genelal a bot- tle of rare old brandy he had been sav- ing in his cellar for some such occasion. '-' McNair refused to be hospitalized when he got back to the United States. In- '-' stead, he went to his quarters, where he held so many conferences that the orderly routines of both his headquar- ters and home were grievously upset. After a week of it, Mrs. McNair de- cided that life would be simpler if the . . General returned to full duty. General Marshall, whose permission was neces- sary for McNair's return to his office, first directed him to take a physical ex- amination, which he passed with star- tling ease. M Cl\AIR was strongly in. favor of ha ving troops in r ining proper- ly orientated by becoming accustomed to having live ammunition shot off around them. He instructed A.G.F. uIl1pires to discontinue the traditional i\rmy practice of keeping maneuvering men as far away as possible from all loaded weapons. An umpire now waves trainees to one side onl r when they are standing right in front of a load- ed piece that appears to be about to go off. i\ltogether, McNair organ- ized and conducted twenty-seven large- scale domestic maneuvers in five large areas. In 1941, aided by Mark Clark, then a brigadier general and his chief assistant, he supervised maneuvers in which a million anu a half men par ticipated and which cost twenty-four million dollars-by far the greatest peacetime exercises in which our Army had ever engaged. The earlier n1a- neuvers of our civilian Army were, to the realistic McNair, rather pathetic. There were periodic armistices, every- body knew just about what was going to happen, and nobody benefited very much. After an umpire had declared a bridge demolished, the troops, instead of building a substitute one, would mere- ly rest the length of time it should have taken to put it up and would then saun- ter (;lcrOSS the "demolished" bridge. Mc- Nair stopped that. Bridges declared down, he said, would not be used again. He put into effect the principle of "free" maneuvers, in which commanders of opposing forces were given only the most general of directives and were re- quired to solve tactical prohlems as they developed. He condemned such unwar- like practices as soldiers' stopping at farmhouses to get drinks of ice water '-' and make telephon@ calls. The largest maneuver area our country has ever had was the Desert